


Countdown

by quiet__tiger



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Drama, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-07
Updated: 2017-05-07
Packaged: 2018-10-29 06:26:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10848327
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quiet__tiger/pseuds/quiet__tiger
Summary: A typical evening as Robin: Boy Hostage.





	Countdown

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: "One Minute."
> 
> Originally posted to Livejournal 24th-Nov-2010.

One minute.

A barely noticeable chunk of time.

Here and gone too quickly to notice.

But sometimes a minute feels interminable, for better or worse.

Sixty tiny units to count down or up.

Sixty tiny units, and Robin was going to make every one count.

His captor had been kind enough to tie him to a chair facing the bomb that was going to blow him to pieces in 58 seconds. The countdown display was theatrically large, too, to ensure he could see it.

No doubt someone was watching his last minute alive. As if his life weren’t already like a movie.

52 seconds.

Robin flexed his wrists. Flexed them again. Whatever was tied around them had been tied in a hurry, so another few seconds would be all he needed.

45 seconds.

Flex and stretch and…

twist and…

There!

28 seconds.

Dammit, his ankles. He was able to slice through the rope around them with his shuriken, but not without losing another seven seconds.

Leaving him with 21.

Not enough to make a run for it, and he wasn’t sure where he was and if people were nearby.

But maybe enough to cut the right wires.

18 seconds.

Four wires. What was it Bruce had said? Always cut red and blue? Or was it red and green? Yellow and blue? Something about matching colors… Or maybe it was to ignore the colors and it was something about the connections. Positive or negative?

9 seconds.

Hmm.

8 seconds.

Well, he could…

7 seconds.

He knew he had to pick two.

5 seconds.

He cut one wire.

4 seconds.

He thought about how his life had certainly been interesting, if short.

3 seconds.

He cut a second wire.

2 seconds.

He stopped breathing.

2 seconds.

He blinked and stared, in case he was seeing things.

2 seconds.

Robin exhaled and started to tremble with relief.

That may have been the longest minute of his life. He’d felt every second, every breath, every twitch of his muscles, every blink of his eyes.

He investigated the room for any evidence, then snagged the bomb to take back to the Cave. That drive lasted mere seconds even though it was miles long. Time really was relative when it mattered.

Part of the training for Robin involved making the most of the time he had to do something, by figuring out how to make the best of the time.

Because sometimes literally every second counted.


End file.
